When, in the second half of the 1960s, governments and aircraft manufacturers in Western Europe discussed a possible joint project called “Airbus”, the markets for civil jet aircraft were dominated by two US firms, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas. After a disappointing start, Airbus Industrie, founded in 1970, had become a serious competitor only a decade later. Since the early 2000s, Airbus and Boeing have been competing head-to-head for market leadership for jet aircraft with more than 100 seats. Boeing has persistently complained about Airbus receiving loans on favourable terms and other subsidies from European governments, and that the latter would use political pressure to make operators buy Airbus aircraft. Based on a record of all wide-body jets delivered between 1969 and 1989 and a dataset built thereupon on all airlines having acquired a brand-new wide-body, we subject the latter reproach to an empirical test by asking for the political determinants of Airbus and Boeing sales. We find suggestive evidence for airlines’ ownership status and their home countries’ former colonial ties to as well as trade relations with and development aid flows from the Airbus consortium member countries and the US to have mattered.